55 chevy truck build and intro

[lotussutol]

Originally Posted by bfink

looks like you got a cool project , i love the pic's of those gasser trucks , if mine didnt already have a clip in it i would love to go that route. i'll be looking for updates , i saw yor post on the HAMB too (im always lurking but i dont post much , one of these days i'll get some pic's of my truck up) , brian

yeah the gasser trucks are cool. I plan on taking the best body parts for the shortbed with the camaro clip and using the rest for the longbed which will have the straight axle with the nose in the air.

well off to do some more work.

[lotussutol]

Well The front body clip, hood, and bed are off the truck. I took a putty knife, wire brush, de-greaser, pressure washer to the front and rear frame and then gave her a bath in ospho. I will let that dry over night then wire brush it again and hit it with some primer to seal her up. I will do the same to the cab area when I get it off.

I was told the camaro clip I have is from a 75. I wish there was a way to tell for sure. But if it does not matter then I do not care. I am going to put in the leaf springs that I have fixed up with new bushings and stripped down to four leafs (were 8) and put the ford 8.8 rear in the truck hopefully on friday. I am putting the rear ontop of the leafs and will notch the frame with some pipe.

Here are some pics from tonight. Sorry they are not the best but it was dark.





















Just realized I really need to clean my shop too.

[lotussutol]

I had a pretty good day after work. I wire brushed the frame again then hit it with some primer. I am sure I will be wire wheeling some of it off for welding/cutting/boxing but oh well. I like having it primered instead of in bare metal. looks cleaner too.

I took the old rear end out and started putting in my other leafs that have the new bushings in them. I also have the new rear end sitting underneath there and hopefully my new plate/shock mount thingies will be in on friday so I can snug it all together.

Here are a few pics. There are 16 new ones in the folder. A link is available in my sig.













These are the rear wheels I want to run but boy are they wide.

[allen57]

looks like u made some progress. looks good. i wish i had a big garage like that.

[tiggerstoy]

making good progress, keep up the good work, and the pics

[lotussutol]

no new pics but the rear shackles are now hooked up and I had some black steel wheels laying around that matched the front bolt pattern and they have brand new tires on them so I put them on. I may run steel wheels with baby moons. I will have to do some searching on the net first to get some ideas. I would do wide white walls but with wide whites everytime you leave a little rubber on the ground it is $$$ as they are expensive.

I am hoping UPS shows up today with the lower shock mount plate things. If they do I am going to bolt in the rear tonight.

Yeah the garage is big! I like it. I had it put in when we bought the house. I figured if this is going to be the house I spend the rest of my life in I want a shop. I wanted to tear out the pool and put in a 100X30 shop but settled for 30x25...If we get a bonus from work at the first of the year I want to get one of those car lifts that run around 2k.

[pgf545]

I believe that the camaro clips were the same from 70-81 so if you are looking for parts you should be safe with those years. The 67-69 used a rear steer setup and the one you have is a front steer setup. What that means is that the steering box is either in front of the cross member or behind it. Good luck and nice progress so far. My projects are at my dad's house which is 15 miles away so i only make it down there on the weekends. So the progress is much slower, but it is getting done...SLOWLY...lol.

Bernie

[lotussutol]

I am thinking I am just going to run these steelies for now. they have brand new tires on them. The fronts are 15x4.5 or 5 stock steel wheels from a 54 chevy car and have 205x70 on them and the back wheels are 15x7 and have 225x75 on them. I have to get one inch spacers though as the ford 8.8 rear is a tad to narrow.



I will probably get some baby moon caps or something.

I have the rear shackles on now too. I wanted to mount the rear to it but the shock mount things i have ordered will not be in till tuesday.

[tiggerstoy]

do you plan to notch the rear frame?

[lotussutol]

yeah. I have some schedule 80 (thick) pipe that I am going to use. I am going to put that in and box a little forward and back. I am also going to box in the front from the camaro clip back to the front cab support.

[tiggerstoy]

thats the same i did with mine, works out well, i used a piece of 4' pipe, cut it in half and boxed, lots of strength now.

[lotussutol]

I just talked to a budy of mine that is going to do some more welding on the frontend of the truck and box the front of the frame. I have the pipe for the rear C notch and he is going to do that and box some on the back too. I am hoping to get that done next weekend or the weekend after.

[lotussutol]

Here are a couple more pics. We are boxing the frame and notching it this friday afternoon.

[lotussutol]

We did a little boxing on the frame this afternoon. This weekend I am removing the cab and getting the frame painted/tranny crossmember in and engine/tranny mounted.

[lotussutol]

sorry...I should probably just do one update for the weekend but I get excited that I am rolling along on this frame.



I have the cab off and will be getting the frame cleaned up/de-rusted/painted tonight hopefully. I also need to remove the existing tranny crossmember and brake lines.

[tiggerstoy]

looks like yuor rolling right allong, keep up with the progress....and the pics

[lotussutol]

I have the mock up sbc block in and the tranny in. I mounted the tranny crossmember. this week I am going to put on new rotors/pads/inner and outer wheel bearings. Next weekend I am going to work on the cab.

[lotussutol]

oh man am I glad I got done what I got done before this heat wave kicked in. I have been wanting to go out in the shop but it has been 107+ with lots of humidity. All I have in the shop at the moment is a box fan so it is an oven.

The heat is supposed to break tuesday or wednesday. I am off friday and plan on spending the day in the shop. Hopefully I can get a couple of the welds done on the crossmember and get the engine/tranny mounted.

[lotussutol]

The tranny crossmember is all welded up and bolted in so mounting the engine/tranny this weekend is a go if I can find a torque converter. I forgot to order one. I have what I think is a stock one but I want a 2500 to 2800 stall.

[lotussutol]

well I did not get a lot done today. I went to Bakersfield to find a torque converter with a 2400+ stall. I found a shop in bakersfield that makes them so I bought one.

I made the mistake of when I picked the kids up from school to go get milkshakes. I like them a lot but man do they tear me up. needless to say I am hurting now.

I did manage to get the mock up block and tranny out of the frame. This weekend I work but after work on sunday I plan on mounting the engine/tranny.

[Bishops Trucks]

Nice projects, keep the pics coming.

[CAL 58 GMC]

Originally Posted by lotussutol

oh man am I glad I got done what I got done before this heat wave kicked in. I have been wanting to go out in the shop but it has been 107+ with lots of humidity. All I have in the shop at the moment is a box fan so it is an oven.

The heat is supposed to break tuesday or wednesday. I am off friday and plan on spending the day in the shop. Hopefully I can get a couple of the welds done on the crossmember and get the engine/tranny mounted.

I hear ya about the heat last week along with the humidity and smoke from those fires in northern cal it really sucked to go outside! Is the smoke bad down in Taft?

[lotussutol]

Originally Posted by CAL 58 GMC

I hear ya about the heat last week along with the humidity and smoke from those fires in northern cal it really sucked to go outside! Is the smoke bad down in Taft?

EVERYTHING was covered in ash here. It looked like it was snowing at some points.

It would cover the pool in a layer of ash that I would go scoop out the best I could.

It appears to be under control now and the heat seems to be breaking too.

It sucks, I wish I was at home right now in the garage vs out at work getting ready to head out in the field to drive around looking for leaks dreaming of being home working on the truck.

oh well, I am interviewing for two different jobs at work and one is a 4/10 schedule where I will have every friday/sat/sun off and the other is a 9/80 schedule where I will have every other friday off and every sat/sun off. That will = a lot more shop time fore sure.

[CAL 58 GMC]

Well, it sounds like you had it worse then we did. We had alot of smoke but no ash. Good luck on the interview!

[lotussutol]

Here are a few pics of the engine in the frame and a couple of the wannabe guard dogs











and one showing Diego is all bark and no bite...